Sociological: These two verses form the foundation of Nephi’s solution to the problem he perceives in his people. His people wonder what to do so Nephi tells them. What he tells them is that there is nothing specific that they must do!
Modern Christians are used to an understanding of the importance of listening to the spirit, and so we miss the profound problem Nephi’s people faced. With a religion that emphasizes performances of sacrifices and obligations, Nephi’s people had been trained to comprehend religion in the form of prescribed and proscribed actions. With the addition of a new ritual (baptism) they understand clearly the performance aspect of baptism. However, they also understand that this ritual places them in a new relationship to deity. They would certainly see baptism as a covenant, and have expectations of ritual alterations on the basis of that covenant.
Their understanding of covenant would be influenced by the Mosaic Law. There is a covenant between God and his people, and his people recognize that covenant in multiple ways - the most permanent being the circumcision of men. The acceptance of this covenant “in the flesh” to use Paul’s image, makes other practices incumbent upon them, including the entire Jewish ritual dietary laws. Nephites would certainly have understood that their covenant set them apart in practice from other peoples who were not under the covenant.
In this context, they are making a new covenant, and therefore have expectations of what to do. Nephi’s answer must have been profoundly frustrating, because he doesn’t tell them! Nephi’s answer is that the Spirit is to be their guide and that the Spirit will teach them what they should do. In modern Mormon culture, our baptismal covenant carries with it expectations and obligations in our religious community. A simple example is the supposition that the baptismal covenant affirms acceptance of our dietary law, the Word of Wisdom. Thus in modern Mormon religious practice, there are definitely things that are expected that we should do after baptism (as anyone dealing with “inactives” can attest).
In Nephi’s society, however, there are no new rules. This one ritual is new, this covenant is new, but there are no further associated performances. Why?
At this point in Nephite history we have a reasonably homogeneous group. We have only one city, which must consist of a central ceremonial/public center with outlying agricultural fields. While there are obviously other peoples (if only the Lamanites for those who don’t buy the arguments about the more complex social environment) the Nephites appear fairly insular, with all peoples looking to their own leaders and community. In this community, the basis for the society is the particular religious structure Nephi and Jacob have put into place. Thus the society already has a social consciousness that includes all who fall under the rubric “Nephite” and all are also under the Law of Moses.
In early Christian groups in the Old World, this universality of acceptance and similarity of practice was not the norm, but the exception. In the early Christian experience, baptism was not simply covenantal, it was symbolic of entry into a new community that increasingly established its internal/external identity in opposition to existing ideas and practices. Nephi’s people, while large enough to have a city, are still few enough that there isn’t the cultural diversity that will later appear in the Book of Mormon. Baptism is not symbolic of entry into a separate society, because there was no separate society. There is no indication that baptism was required of all Nephites, and rather appears to be (as it should be) a voluntary act. Baptism did not create a social fragmentation, because it was seen as a personal religious covenant inside of the greater framework of the Mosaic Laws and performances.
Because baptism did not signal any separation (socially or religiously) for the Nephites, there were no performances requisite after baptism that were not also requisite before baptism. Nephi’s people don’t know what to do because Nephi has them continue in the Law of Moses. Nephi’s explanation of the baptismal covenant is that the addition of the Holy Spirit will provide a dimensionality in their lives that will provide individual understandings of “what ye should do.” Just as the Sermon on the Mount emphasizes the internal, personal obedience over public obedience, Nephi’s emphasis on the change after baptism is focused on the individual and their internal, spiritual, response to the rites, rather than the performances themselves.
Rhetorical: Nephi’s line of logic is interesting. He returns to the baptismal theme of the previous discourse, and then focuses on the Holy Ghost rather than the baptism. He highlights for them the phrase he has used that they “could speak with the tongue of angels.” Nephi will now use this phrase with a new twist. He uses the “tongue of angels” phrase to move from the Spirit to the “words of Christ.” The “angels” serve as the intermediary between the logic of the Gift of the Holy Ghost and the “words of Christ.” Because the angels speak by the Holy Ghost (as a member of the united godhead) they must speak the words of Christ (who would be of one mind with the Father and the Holy Ghost). This the individual receives the Holy Ghost, the “tongue of angels” speaks the words of Christ through the Holy Ghost, and therefore the baptized receive the personal revelation of the words of Christ.
In the modern context, we understand “words of Christ” to be a written text. That was impossible for the Nephites (in the context of Christ as the Messiah) for while Nephi had visions, he had no text. Therefore, Nephi is enjoining his people to personal revelation to understand “what to do” rather than reading scripture. Of course, scripture as a mode of receiving the words of Christ may do the same for us, and we do well to read and ponder scripture, but Nephi’s emphasis for his people is on the personal revelation of the Messiah through the Spirit, a process with which he was intimately familiar (as was his brother Jacob).
Scriptural: With the advantages of a modern world, the words of Christ are readily available to us. We may read them. Through inspired leaders, we can hear them over radio and television. In all of that, we must remember that Nephi’s injunction is that those “words of Christ” should come to us through the Spirit, and should tell us what to do. Our concerns are not over ritual practices, but should be over the more constant ways in which we live our lives. The Savior and Nephi encourage us to have our hearts right, not just our practices right. It is in this refinement of the effect of religion on our souls that the Holy Spirit teaches us what to do. It teaches us to turn habits into principles, where the Word of Wisdom transcends a physical law and becomes one that polishes our spirit. It is part of the lesson all parents hope their children learn, that attendance at church is important not for the attendance, but for the changes that can be wrought in one’s soul.